James Howard Kunstler, author: Americans will vote for cornpone Nazis before they will give up their entitlements to a McHouse and a McCar.

Pascal Lamy, head of the World Trade Organization:Trade is good and it is a necessity, but it is not sufficient for economic development and poverty alleviation. It’s fine in theory to open up markets, but someone has to push for the full benefits of all nations.

Atul Gawande, surgeon: Surgeons, as a group, adhere to a curious egalitarianism. They believe in practice, not talent. People often assume that you have to have great hands to become a surgeon, but it’s not true. When I interviewed to get into surgery programs, no one made me sew or take a dexterity test or checked to see if my hands were steady. You do not even need all ten fingers to be accepted. To be sure, talent helps… Nonetheless, attending surgeons say that what’s most important to them is finding people who are conscientious, industrious, and boneheaded enough to keep at practicing this one difficult thing day and night for years on end.

Martin Buber, religious philosopher: I consider a tree. I can look on it as a picture: stiff column in a shock of light, or splash of green shot with the delicate blue and silver of the background. I can perceive it as movement: flowing veins on clinging, pressing pith, suck of the roots, breating of the leaves, ceaseless commerce with earth and air — and the obscure growth itself. I can classify it in a species and study it as a type in its structure and mode of life. I can subdue its actual presence and form so sternly that I recognise it only as an expression of law… I can dissipate it and perpetuate it in number, in pure numerical relation. In all this the tree remains my object, occupies space and time, and has its nature and constitution.

Alex Marshall, journalist: Cities with a sense of place go back to the dawn of recorded history. The stories of cities without a sense of place began about 1945. We are in a new era, one that poses new challenges and the opportunity for new narratives.